My Kind of Town

Last week, Jeremy and I took a mini-vacation to Chicago. We haven't had a chance to visit since last year, and so decided to take a break from reality for a couple of days.

While Chicago is known for it's Deep Dish Pizza, typically, we don't have it while we are down there. Since we had a few meals to cover, we decided to stop at Giordano's for a delicious Chicago lunch. Of course, the pizza was so filling, we ended up having left overs which we shared with a man asking for money on the street.

We also decided to go to the Shedd Aquarium. Jeremy had never been there, and I haven't been since High School. It was a fun way to spend the afternoon!

Almost better than the Aquarium was the view from the front of it. If only I could look at this view out my window every day!

Since it was such a nice day (40+ degrees), we decided to walk back to our hotel. We enjoyed the views of the architecture!

And even tried to relive some favorite movie memories (If you cannot tell, I'm trying to look like the little girl in the movie "Adventures in Babysitting")

Little did we know we own a piece of downtown!

We walked through Millenium park, and got to see the "Bean" in person. It was really cool to see...it's amazing how reflective it is!

What a fantastic Getaway!

She's My Cherry Pie

In February, Cherry Pie was playing at our bowling alley the same night as our league, so we HAD to stay after to enjoy some of the rocking music of our past!

In the first few years after I graduated college, Angie, myself and some other friends became fond of Cherry Pie--an 80's Cover-Hair band. They played all of our favorites from our younger years. Of course, as time went on, we didn't get to see them as often, and before we knew it, over 5 years has passed.

Of course, in that time, the band members have gotten older and the crowds have gotten larger. None the less, the whole evening was hilarious and fantastically fun!

They truely are an 80's Cover HAIR band...and they dress every bit the part!

Jeremy definitely didn't know what he was in for when he agreed to go...I think in the end he had a fun time, though... :)

Angie and I tried to do our best to mimick some of the dances we saw from some of the Cherry Pie Groupies. The dances were interesting, to say the least...

Here is the guitarist/keyboardest/etc. for Cherry Pie. Back in the early days of Cherry Pie (i.e. the year 2000), he went by the stage name "Lucious Rod". Now, it's just Josh. I guess there is a point where you are just too old for the bad stage names. Yes, both he and Angie are standing at the same level.

Here is a video I took during the song "Talk Dirty to Me"... Enjoy! :)

Jump Around

Some shots of our Home visitors jumping on the trampoline (before it was hastily taken away)...

Ian & Connor

David Douglas

Keri Allard

Memories...

Just some of my favorite pictures from the past year that were found on the "uncharged" camera. Enjoy!

My Patio furniture...I was so excited to have a backyard of our own that we purchased it before we even closed on the house! This nice weather we've been having lately is getting me anxious to put out the furniture again so we can once again enjoy our backyard!

Jeremy's parents replicating a picture from our wedding--in the "I've Won" pose that is their trademark! This was in August 2009.

Jeremy was happy to have finally finished changing out the chandelier in the dining room...and the result was well worth it. It's scary to see the mess that we once lived in!

Erin's Baby shower in July, 2009. This is back when we first moved into the house, and I was running on hardly any sleep...now Erin's baby Raegan is here, and SHE is the one getting hardly any sleep!

Our first meal in the new house...Burger King!

Kim and Adam brought Paige (only a couple of months old at that point) to Wisconsin from California! I got to meet her and enjoy time with Kim and Adam back in June, 2009.

The weekend before we moved into our house, we took a "belated birthday dinner cruise" on Laken Monona. It was a birthday gift for my 30th birthday in 2008, however, we just never found the time until a year later! Here is a view of Monona Terrace and the Capit0l skyline from the cruise.

What a great picture of Jeremy on our relaxing cruise!

Connor's 2nd Birthday party in June, 2009...what a cutie pie!

Ian at Connor's birthday party...he looks so grown-up, and that was a year ago! Now he seems even older! :)

My parents and us gave a combined birthday gift to Connor...a Cadillac Escalade! And it even comes with my Mom as a chaffeur!

Jeni brough Katelyn (then 5 months old) to visit in June, 2009. This was my second time meeting her. I just recently saw her again, and the baby that I am holding in this picture is now a little girl!!!

Our friend Terri was an MC for the Wisconsin Women's Health Foundation's Spring Gala at the Capitol, and invited us as her guest. We had such a great time dancing and enjoying the music in the Capitol Rotunda!

April, 2009...for Angie's birthday, we had a fun-filled day in the Wisconsin Dells. We all combined efforts to win enough tickets for Angie to get the "Tiger Rug" (really--more of a blanket)!

Jeremy and I celebrated our 1st Annniversary in Chicago--the site of our engagement. We had some great Wedding Giftcards to spend at Wildfire and Second City, and had a wonderful weekend!

Outside of Second City

We'll be Home for Christmas

So, while the family Christmas celebration wasn't at our house, we still were able to make a lot of Holiday memories this year in our new Home. Here are some pictures of how we dressed up our house to bring Christmas joy to the Nichols' new home in 2009! Our tree in 2009...we had a small snafu where it fell over, but got it back up just in time for our annual "St. Nichol's Holiday party"

Our Stockings were hung by the chimney with care....

And the cookies were ready for Santa...

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

We were able to get our Christmas decorations up just in the nick of time! The last bit of garland was placed on Monday night--less than 24 hours before the Blizzard of 2009 started!

Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures taken before the storm, and some of my decorations are now covered by snow. I have big plans to finish un-burying them in the coming days.

I nixed my plan to put lighted garland around all of the columns, because it was looking to be a bit "much"...however, now that some of my decorations are covered, I'm thinking that it might be a good addition!

My only mishap came while putting up the snowflakes on the garage door. I squished my fingers in between two of the doors, and have a lovely black fingernail to show for it...but the outcome of the snowflakes was great! :)

Thanks to my mom for lending us her homemade elves! They are the perfect addition! We didn't have time to make anything of our own, this year, but have big plans for next year.

Please notice the lightbulbs sticking out of the ground infront of the house...

And here is what was left of those lightbulbs after the snow!

Our Candy canes seem to have lost their "Cane" status!